HBO Now Is… Just OK, with 800,000 Subscribers- Time Warner announced it has signed up 800,000 subscribers for HBO Now.An analyst asked on the earnings call why it was only 800k- HBO head Richard Plepler said “I wouldn’t say only 800,000 subs. We’re just getting started. … I think we’re going to make a lot of progress.”- Total HBO added 2.7 million customers last year, so about 1.9 million without HBO Now.

Signal Intelligence

Bryan Fuller to produce new Star Trek series- Bryan Fuller, Wrote for DS9 and VOY- Created Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls and Hanibal- Showrunner for American Gods miniseries on Starz- Now named Showrunner for CBS new Star Trek coming to CBS All Access in 2017- Generally well-received news by Trek fans- Does this change the complaint about having to pay for another service?

Dr. Dre Filming Apple's First Scripted Television Series- The Hollywood Reporter says it has learned that Apple’s first scripted television series will star Dr. Dre who will also executive produce. The six half-hour episode series will be called Vital Signs and likely be distributed through Apple Music. Sam Rockwell and Mo McCrae are cast and music video director Paul Hunter is running it. Empire’s Robert Munic wrote the episodes.

BitTorrent comes to Apple TV through a live news app- OTT News has launched on iOS, tvOS and Android as a test case for live streaming using BitTorrent. Alicé Anil, James Reinl, and Doc Stodden have been using BitTorerent Live’s first mobile app to stream coverage. This is the actual BItTorrent COMPANY’s tech for live streaming without needing a CDN.

Hulu's universal Windows 10 app features live tiles and Cortana- And a few other things. Hulu now has an app specifically built for Windows 10, integrating with Cortana voice commands and Windows Live Tiles. Cinemax is now available on Sling TV for an extra $10 a month. And Amazon announced it is reneweing Mozart in the Jungle for a third season.

Top Gear gets its cast as Clarkson begins filming for Amazon- And the full new cast of Top Gear is pundit Eddie Jordan, Rory Reid (former CNET!!) driver Sabine Schmitz and journalist Chris Harris. They jin DJ Chris Evans and TV star Matt LeBlanc. Meanwhile Amazon is building around Clarkson and crew.

Dispatches from the FrontOh well after subscribing to Netflix for 4 years, 3 and half before they were officially launched in Australia they have finally lost me as a subscriber after blocking the VPN and blocking my Paypal payments to the VPN provider I use to access their Library in the US, as the Australian one has very few of the shows my Teenagers like to watch. I know i am not alone in this as 8 of the 10 people i know who have Netflix have also done the same, I know this is a very small sample, but i wonder what affect this would have on Netflix"s share price if a similar number of people in Australia and especially China ,who have an estimated 30 million users using VPN's as Netflix isnt even officially available there yet, cancelled, what are your thoughts, why are Netflix doing the right thing after years of turning a blind eye? or is it a case of the studios finally leaving them no choice.

- Alan

have often found that there is nothing much to watch at Netflix. So I was curious - am I just being picky? Thought you might be interested in my scribblings on a paper napkin while getting coffee this AM....

Using the data at Flixed there are currently 5658 movies/TV at Netflix - all categories in US. There are none in the max number of rating stars. There are 122 in the next category down; 836 in the next; and 1621 in nex. So there are only 2 % in the top two rating categories.And 15% in the third category. The fourth category alone is 29%. That means 45% in top 4 rating categories.

So 55% of the movies (3644) in US are below the top 4 rating categories. [some rounding effects]

The chances of finding something good to watch are pretty low especially if one has already seen most of the top rated ones or if most of top rated ones are in categories not favored like anime, children's or comedies. - Judy

Hi Guys,

I wanted to let you know that I finally returned my Cablecard from my Tivo and cancelled my Comcast cable, upgraded my internet to 150/10 and saving $50 a month in the process.

To supplement my viewing appetite, I signed up for a trial of Xfinity Stream TV, a fairly new Internet based steaming package using their X1 software and it is available in Boston, Chicago and reportedly launching soon in Seattle. It includes live locals and HBO for $15 a month, available via web browser or their iOS and Android mobile apps, 20 hour cloud DVR, On demand access, and authentication access for the network specific apps including HBOGO.

It requires that you have Comcast Internet, but for the same price as HBO Now, I'm pretty happy with it, especially living in a market that still doesn't have Playstation Vue packages. Thought you guys would like to hear about another option out there.